Strawberries and Cream

What a splendid treat for afternoon tea!

This is a super easy recipe and takes no time at all to make!

The icing isn't too sweet and has a silky texture.

Thanks Tasty Pursuits for your delicious recipe!

Makes ~12 cupcakes.

 
2 cups (218 grams) cake flour
1 cup (220 grams) sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups heavy cream
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 egg*, room temperature
 
Cream Frosting8 ounces cream cheese, cold
1/3 cup strawberry jam
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup confectioner’s sugar
2 cups heavy cream, cold
5 strawberries, rinsed dried and quartered
 
Preheat the oven to 180*C. Place 12 cupcake liners in muffin tins.
 
In a large bowl, whisk together by hand the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt until thoroughly combined.
 
Whisk in the heavy cream, canola oil and vanilla until just combined. Do not overmix the batter; otherwise, the cake will be tough.
 
Whisk in the egg until just combined.
 
Scoop the batter into the muffin tins so that they are 2/3 full. Bake for 12 – 13 minutes (7 – 9 minutes for mini cupcakes) until an inserted toothpick comes out with a few crumbs (not wet batter) attached to it. If the toothpick comes out clean, remove the cupcakes from the oven immediately. Overbaking cupcakes makes them dry and tough.
 
Cool the cupcakes for 30 minutes – 1 hour before frosting.
 
To make the frosting:
With an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese with a paddle attachment on medium until it is fluffy. Beat in the jam, vanilla and sugar until just combined.
 
Switch to a whisk attachment and reduce the speed to medium-low. Add the heavy cream in a slow steady stream.
 
Increase the speed to high and whip until the frosting is fluffy and slightly stiff. Do not over whip, otherwise it will look curdled.
 
Frost the cupcakes and top each one with a quarter of a strawberry.
 

yum cha @ home

Living in a country town, the concept of yum cha is quite foreign and if it isn't foreign it will cost you double what you would get in the city.

So I thought.. why not give it a crack at home.

After this experience... well dumpling making is certainly something to do on a rainy day. It does take some time to make, but certainly rewarding. Please note - my recipe is definitely a lot of taste and adjust if need be.

Chicken + prawn dumplings

With my made-up soy/oyster sauce

Chicken and prawn dumplings (makes ~30)

Ingredients

6-8 prawns - shelled and deveined

~300g chicken mince

~20 x sliced water chestnuts - diced

1.5 tblspoon grated ginger

1/2 bunch chopped chives

1 tsp rock sugar - may need to break up with meat hammer

~1 tspoon cornflour

1/2 tspoon White pepper 

1 tsp Salt

2 tbspoon sesame oil

wonton wrappers

Method

1. Food process the prawns until just blended. Change the blade to the dough mixing blade. 
2. Add the chicken mince, diced water chestnuts, ginger, chives, sugar and cornflour to the prawns and mix. 
3. Add salt, pepper, and sesame oil to the mixture. Mix again.This should look like a gloopy, mixture that you could mould into shape. Now you are ready to put the filling in! See Baking powders for details how to fold 
4. Lightly brush the wonton wrappers each side with corn flour. Cut out a circle using a egg ring/cookie cutter ~10cm in diameter.
5. Using a teaspoon, scoop a teaspoon of mixture into the centre of the wonton wrapper.
6. Brush a little water around half the diameter of the wonton wrapper, fold across and pleat each side. 
7. Bring water to boil and place steaming basket on top.
8. Once water boiled, lower heat to simmer and place dumplings inside
9. This will take about 8-10minutes to cook. You will be able to tell when the dumpling skins become translucent.

Soy sauce


Ingredients
1/4cup soy sauce
1 tbs oyster sauce
1 tsp rock sugar
2 chillies
1 spring onion
2 tbs canola oil


Heat up oil to medium heat. Add chillies and spring onions.
Lower heat to simmer. Add sugar, soy sauce and oyster sauce and let simmer until caramelises. This will take a few minutes. 

lovely treats

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream cheese icing <3

Moist, slightly bitter with that essential, hint of vinegar making a beautiful lovely sweet treat!

Thanks to The Joy of Baking blog

I have created their red velvet cupcakes.

I searched the internet for a recipe that was simple and didn't require too much effort. 

Where else than a place where they find baking, joyful?

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups (125 grams) sifted cakeflour (from any Coles)
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoons (10 grams) regular or Dutch-processed cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup (57 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cups (150 grams) granulated white sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) buttermilk
• 1 tablespoon liquid red food coloring
• 1/2 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Cream cheese frosting

• 227 grams cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup (60 grams) icing sugar, sifted (I added probably 1 cup)
• 2/3 cup (160 ml) cold heavy whipping cream(double cream) (35-40% butterfat) (Low fat just won't cut it!!!)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 175*C and line 12 muffins tins with cupcake liners
2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder
3. In a separate bowl (for electric mixer or mix master) beat the butter until soft (~2mins)
4. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy (2-3 minutes)
5. Add the egg and beat until incorporated
6. Add vanilla extract
7. In a measuring jug - fill buttermilk to 1/2 a cup. Add red food colouring and mix through.
8. In 3 additions, add the flour mixture (from the large bowl) and buttermilk mixture alternately. Start and finish with the flour mixture.
9. In a small cup, combine the vinegar and baking soda. Allow mixture to fizz and then quickly fold into the cake batter

To get really perfectly even cupcakes, you can use a ice-cream scoop and quickly scoop batter into the muffin tins.

Bake for approximately 18-23 minutes, or until when you poke a toothpick in and pull it out, its clean!!!

Let the cakes cool.

For the icing

Beat cream cheese with electric mixer until smooth. 

Add vanilla extract and icing sugar and beat till smooth.

Using a whist, gradually add the double creak and whip until frosting is thick enough to pipe (will hold its shape).

Add more sugar to get consistency and flavour! Place icing into piping bag, using the crown-like attachment nozzle thing (clearly i know my stuff.. pfft) and pipe away! Its the prettiest icing and makes an easy recipe look fancy!!!

Enjoy! <3 

Lemongrass beef stir fry

Thai style lemongrass beef stir fry - Serves 4

Fragrant and light, with hints of kaffir lime

Best served with Jasmine rice and crisp iceberg lettuce

Preparation time 15-20 minutes

Cooking time 10 minutes

Ingredients

~10cm lemongrass, finely chopped

~2cm x 1 cm ginger - finely chopped

2-3 cloves garlic crushed

2 birds eye chillies (Adjust to taste)

4-6 kaffir lime leaves - chopped roughly

1/2 juice from lime

Zest from 1/2 lime

2 tablespoons fish sauce 

(If you think you were a little overzealous with the fish sauce, you can save it with a bit of water to dilute)

1/2 cube palm sugar, grated

~1-2 tablespoons canola oil to coat the beef and marinate

400g beef stir fry strips/scotch fillet 

Salt and pepper

Method

1. Chop up lemongrass, ginger, garlic, chillies and kaffir lime leaves - add to bowl. 
2. Add beef and mix through with the lime juice, zest, oil, and fish sauce. If you think you were a little overzealous with the fish sauce, add some water to dilute. Grate some palm sugar over the top.
3. Set aside for at least 30 minutes at room temperature
4. To achieve that chargrilled flavour - cook on non-stick fry pan with no oil. Line beef across pan, one layer and turn beef as cooks and achieves that crispy, dark colour. You may need to do batches, depending on the size of your pan.

To add some crunch - you can get some iceberg lettuce leaves and wrap the rice or rice vermicelli and beef in a roll - like a rice paper roll! :)

Alternatively you can chop up the lettuce and serve salad like - with rice vermicelli instead of rice.

Enjoy x

Something a bit different...

Rose River Ginger Beer

Ginger beer without the bitterness, but full of sweetness. Mucho refreshing!!!

Unfortunately it only comes in one size... MCMASSIVE... So hope you are thirsty.

Rose River has also developed some unique flavours, I am keen to try...

Honey, Lemon, Banana Mango and Strawberry... 

Fresh, healthy and deeee-lishus!

Though the weather is frosty and that cold that the breeze bites your face, sometimes stodgy food just won't hit the spot for dinner... Tonight I felt like something light and tasty, fresh snapper with an array of beautiful, colourful veggies! Thank goodness sayang is around to direct my culinary skills...

Flavour the oil with our aromatics - ginger, garlic, spring onions, chillies, lemongrass and shallots simmer away in the wok until just golden brown. Add some lime juice and zest to give the dish that bitey taste! Just smell the flavour wafting up your nostils and hear your tummy start to rumble and your mouth water, your body knows it's in for a treat!

Some chopped kaffir lime leaves... some baby corn, brussel sproats and shitake mushies go in... Followed by our star, snapper! We pop that in over a bed of veggies, fish sauce and fish stock to steam and pack the fish full of Thai flavours.

The final product is a beautifully healthy meal that is low fat meal, with mono and polyunsaturated fats for healthy hearts! Good source of veggies - atleast 1-2 serves per portion!

A perfectly balanced meal of sweet, tangy, spicy with a little bit of bitterness to cut through the richness of the fish sauce and lemongrass. You exerience the crunchiness of the veggies, the fish keeps your palate moist and combined with some fluffly jasmine rice, this has got to be one of the most deee-lishus healthy meals around.

It can be eaten in any season - its the type of food that makes you feel good - because its healthy, its warm to make you sweat in summer or warm up in winter, the flavours will take you to a Thai beach, where you get fresh seafood served to you while you soak up the summer sun...
So that was my little escape meal - to take my mind off this terrible, frosty cold!